FSML: Expanding the Biological/Physical Sampling at Rutgers Marine Field Station at Tuckerton

了解鱼类和海洋生物进出沿海河口的运动对科学家来说是一项挑战，也是了解它们的生态学的关键。解决这一问题是一个关键问题，因为过去30年收集的观察表明，大西洋中部的渔业正在发生变化。观察表明，鱼类的数量和类型已经显示出显著的变化。这些变化的影响和原因将需要能够解决自然界中鱼类动态的定量信息。传统的抽样技术将无法解决这些动态，因此，科学家将无法理解为什么会发生这些变化。该项目将开发一个网络，持续跟踪穆利卡河-大湾口海洋交界处的浮游动物、鱼类和海洋哺乳动物。这项工作将及时收集连续的记录，使我们第一次能够跟踪动物进出河口的活动。研究这个河口的一个优势是它是美国东北部最干净的河口-海岸海湾之一，这让我们能够了解一个原始的河口的动态。罗格斯大学海洋野外站(RUMFS)(http://marine.rutgers.edu/rumfs/))位于莫里卡河大湾口，是新泽西州雅克·库斯托国家河口研究保护区的一部分。RUMFS的建筑、堤道和地面位于新泽西州南部小蛋湾附近的一个半岛上，占地7英亩。海洋和河口之间的水交换主要通过一个狭窄但深(15米)的小蛋口，它直接毗邻RUMFS设施(米)。与美国东北部的大多数河口不同，周围地区，包括松树荒原分水岭的大部分，都受到保护，不受大规模人类干扰。因此，MRGB河口可能是东海岸最干净的河口-沿海海湾。这使得RUMFS成为一个独特的天然实验室。现有的RUMFS努力一直围绕着长期鱼类时间序列抽样展开。这些调查提供了关于该区域鱼类多样性、生态学和生活史的宝贵信息；然而，相对于这些系统的生态动态，采样在空间和时间上都很稀少。虽然有一些关于个别物种通过标记/被动声学技术进出河口的信息，但现有的关于进出大湾的鱼类的多样性和丰度的信息有限，这些信息有足够的分辨率将物理条件与鱼类生态联系起来。为了填补这一关键的数据缺口，我们提出了一种集成系统，该系统将多频率与海底水听器相结合，结合了一个仿生多频率阵列。该系统将部署在外地站附近。RUMFS位于一条深水道(约12米深)附近(1.5米)，这是JC NERR的主要海洋入口。我们建议在航道内安装声学系统，以追踪生物进出河口的情况。集成的多频率主动/被动声学阵列将补充RUMFS 30年来每周进行的独一无二的浮游生物采样。增加拟议的声学阵列将加强正在进行的和新成立的研究生和本科生的努力，将当地和全球两级的相关信息实时传回校园。这些数据将通过开放获取数据和可视化软件提供给罗格斯大学和两所社区学院的各种课程。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding the movements of fish and marine life in and out of coastal estuaries is a challenge for scientists and critical to understanding their ecology. Solving this problem is a critical issue as observations collected over the last 30 years suggests that the fisheries in the Mid- Atlantic is changing. Observations suggest the number and type of fish have been showing significant changes. The implications and reasons for the changes will require quantitative information that can resolve the dynamics of fish in nature. Traditional sampling techniques will not be able to resolve these dynamics, and as a result scientists will not be able to understand why these changes are occurring. This project will develop network that will continuously track zooplankton, fish, and marine mammals in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary right at the interface of the ocean. This effort will collect a continuous record in time allowing us to for the first time track the animal movement in and out of the estuary. An advantage studying this estuary is one of the cleanest estuary-coastal inlets in the northeast United States allowing us to resolve dynamics in a pristine estuary. The Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) (http://marine.rutgers.edu/rumfs/) is located in the Mullica River−Great Bay (MRGB) estuary which is part of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) in New Jersey.. The buildings, causeway, and grounds of RUMFS occupy seven acres on a peninsula close to Little Egg Inlet in southern New Jersey. Water is exchanged between the ocean and the estuary mainly through a narrow but deep (15 m) Little Egg Inlet that is directly adjacent (meters) to the RUMFS facility. Unlike most estuaries in the northeastern U.S., the surrounding area, including most of the Pine Barrens watershed, is protected from large-scale human disturbance. As a result, the MRGB estuary is probably the cleanest estuary-coastal inlets on the east coast. This makes RUMFS a unique natural laboratory. Existing RUMFS efforts have been centered around long-term fish time series sampling. These surveys have provided invaluable information about the diversity, ecology, and life histories of fishes in the region; however, the sampling is sparse in space and time relative to ecological dynamics of these systems. Although there is some information about individual species movements in and out of the estuary through tagging/passive acoustic techniques, the available information is limited on the diversity and abundance of fish moving into and out of Great Bay with sufficient resolution to link the physical conditions to the fish ecology. We propose to fill this crucial data gap by acquiring an integrated system that combines a multi-frequency combining a BioSonic multi-frequency array with a SubSea hydrophone. The system will be deployed adjacent to the field station. RUMFS sits adjacent (1.5 meters) to a deep channel (~12 meters depth) that is the major ocean entrance to JC NERR. We propose to deploy the acoustic system in the channel to track the movement of organisms in and out of the estuary. The integrated multi-frequency active/passive acoustics array will complement the one-of-a-kind plankton sampling RUMFS has been conducting on a weekly basis for 30 years. The addition of the proposed acoustic array will strengthen ongoing and newly formed graduate and undergraduate efforts by providing information that is relevant on both the local and global levels in real-time back to campus. The data will be served to a wide range of courses both at Rutgers as well as two community colleges through open access data and visualization software.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.